At the Origins of the Varangian Corps in Byzantium: Normans, Armenians or Persians?

Abstract

The origin of the name of the Byzantine imperial guards βάραγγοι is most often associated with the Scandinavians and, inversely, with the phenomenon of the Varangians in Eastern Europe, however, these connections are debatable. Of the ethno-cultural impulses identified and recorded in the sources associated with the waves of unreceptive Muslim settlers from the eastern caliphates. An alternative version is proposed, according to which the beginning of this guard belongs to the Persians from the Khurramite religious sect, who migrated to Byzantium after their presence in opposition to the Abbasids and were accepted for military occupation by Emperor Theophilus. Later, Greek traditions are being prepared and new ethnic warriors, the composition of this contingent and its name have undergone changes while maintaining some cultural traditions. The latter were accepted, including by Armenians, from Scandinavian and British warriors, who began to make up a sample of part of the Varangians only in the 11th century. The characterization of the imperial guards as "ax-bearing barbarians" affects the natural needs of the northern regions of Persia, from where the last Khurramites migrated to Byzantium. The term βάραγγοι itself underwent a complex evolution from the original Persian word, contamination with the Greek beginning, which went to the defensive-mountainous line, and acquired its final form under the release of the vocabulary of the peoples who formed the appearance of an elite military contingent already in the period of the mature history of the Byzantine state.